Assignment 3: The Making

This is by far the most challenging assignment. I had a hard time thinking of a novel story line. Initially, I could only thought of a usual love story plot. However, I also need to consider the cast and the scene for my story. It was difficult to rope in too many people given such a short notice. Therefore I needed an alternative urgently. Went for a show, Protégé. It was about the world of drug and I was hit upon by an idea for this assignment, to do up a meaningful story on the abuse of drug, going through the process of drug abuse and the ending of a drug abuser.

As my lead (my sister) was not willingly to cast her face in the show, I had to thinking of ways to depict my story in a more abstract manner to avoid exposure. It was this constraint that provided me room to learn even more, to explore further with the limited resources that I am provided with. Zooming into the details, I realized that a pair of arms was more than enough to explain my story. I guess assignment 2 helped me to work in a more abstracted way.

Since I wanted my story to be more abstract to invoke the audience to think, I decided that my starting and ending could have continuity. The first two and last two pictures of my story are similar; lighting and extinguishing of a candle.

Having completed the photo taking, looking at all the pictures, it gives rise to the idea of having the photo in black and white. The use of black and white was better able to portray the feeling of a grey world of drug abuse. However, looking at the B&W photo, I feel that it was too gloomy, stealing away the glow of the candle. Therefore, I decided to add effect, coloring back the glow of the candle.

Overall, the response from the class was not too repulsive of my idea. The only question was scene 3, the handicapped toilet. It was not meaningful enough to just show the sign of the toilet and the question why a handicapped toilet. Scene 3 was also quite out of place with the rest of the scenes, it was also the only scene without a candle.

A way that I could think of to improve scene 3 is to have a hand pushing open the door and another holding onto a candle, trying to light up the toilet.

Assignment 3: Candle of Life

"Candle of Life"

(In support of anti-drug campaign)

Synopsis:

Life is like the flame of a candle. If used wisely, it can bring hope; yet, if used thoughtlessly, it can also burn an individual. Life is as fragile as the burning flame; with a light gentle puff, the once passionately burning flame can be reduced to no more than thin vanishing smoke.

The burning of a candle brings light to one’s life, yet this candle of life can also take away the light. Drug abusers often use candle to liquefy their drug to be injected into themselves for a moment of foolish enjoyment. This moment of enjoyment do not last, it only brings one closer to the door of death. Drugs kill. Stop wasting life. Stop drug abuse.

1. Candle of Life

2. Brightly burning flame of life

3. Behind the closed door

4. Bringing light to the darkness

5. Giving heat, bringing warmth

6. After the flame

7. Enter the world of drug

8. Drug kills

9. Last light

10. No more than vanishing smoke

Assignment 2: Tiger Abstract

In this assignment, I have chosen Tiger as my subject. I decided on the use of Tiger as I like the vibrant color of its fur and its ferocious stare. The first concept that came to my mind in the development of an indexical representation of a Tiger was to depict its orange coat and black stripe. Operating on this idea, I worked backward by visualizing my last abstract representation first.

Iconic

Indexical

With start of my iconic representation and the end of my indexical representation ready, I proceeded to reduce the details at each stage. At stage 4, reducing to only the head of my subject, I feel that any further reduction will loss its identity. Therefore the final symbol that I choose was stage 4.

Degree of Abstract

Only at our critique session, do I realize that we should not play on the color. However, I felt that the color was important for me to depict my subject, till a classmate pointed out that white tiger can solve my problem of use of color. Lucky for me, white tiger exist.

Too many details still exist at my point of selection of my symbol. I was provided advice to break the outline of the face, keeping only the eyes till mouth and of course, the distinct stripes of a Tiger.

In my revised work, realized that even without the silhouette, the stripes around the face is still able to provide the closure for visualization. The details have been reduced, but the room for imagination still does exist.

Revised

More than meets the eyes

Design and Art are both subjective to personal views, however behind this subjective perception still lay a systematic process in coming up with a more readily acceptable final artworks.

Design and Art is more than what meets the eyes. It goes beyond the naked eyes into the complex gearing mind of individuals.

Assignment 1: Final Prototype

In the final prototype for flying, I have decided to use the N from the second rough as suggested by the class. As for the 'G', it was back to the drawing board. With the toying of the use of control tower, I have decided to have two aeroplanes to accompany it, to depict the coming in and going out of aeroplanes in the airport to give more meaning to my design.

Prototype: Flying

Instead of using the shark which the class was more interested to see in my rough, I have decided to use dolphin leaping out of water to form my 'G'. It was able to display the shape of 'G' more coherently as the waves are easier t manipulate. Similar to the suggestion of using shark of lesser associative value to diving, I believed that dolphin will also be a good choice for my design.

Prototype: Diving

As I was afraid that it was difficult to visualize my G, I decided to add a faint backing of each character at the back of my prototype.

The feedback that the addition of the backing was unnecessary, it only added noise to my prototype. The tail of the 'G' for the Flying prototype was not very clear, making it look like a 'C'. The tail of the aeroplane was not long enough to form the end of the 'G'. I could instead try to replace it with a runway, which can form the curve back of the tail of 'G' more at will. The class also asked about the coloring of the arrow 'N'. It was distracting. On the other hand, there were not much of feedbacks for the prototype of Diving.

In my revised work, will take out the backing of the character, replace with a runway to form the tail of G for the subject flying as well as change the color of the arrow to reduce noise.

Revised: Flying

Revised: Diving